Biases associated with the use of a playback in stopover ecology studies of Bluethroats<i>Luscinia svecica</i>

Arizaga, Juan; Musseau, Raphaël; Laso, Maite; Esparza, Xabier; Unamuno, Edorta; Azkona, Ainara; Fontanilles, Philippe

doi:10.1080/00063657.2015.1021239

Cited by 7 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…It could be argued that the higher number of short-staying Bluethroats in Barthes de la Nive was caused by the use of playbacks during the trapping sessions, which were not implemented in Txingudi. However, current evidence would not support this hypothesis, since the use of playbacks typically attracts Bluethroats with lower body reserves (Arizaga et al 2015) and, as our results show, birds with less fuel loads would tend to have longer stopover durations (Alerstam and Lindström 1990;Salewski and Schaub 2007). This bias of playback use on the body reserve loads of autumn migrating Bluethroats was consistent in the three wetlands (on the Bay of Biscay, Gironde, Txingudi, Urdaibai) analysed by Arizaga et al (2015) that are geographically close to Barthes de la Nive.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…However, current evidence would not support this hypothesis, since the use of playbacks typically attracts Bluethroats with lower body reserves (Arizaga et al 2015) and, as our results show, birds with less fuel loads would tend to have longer stopover durations (Alerstam and Lindström 1990;Salewski and Schaub 2007). This bias of playback use on the body reserve loads of autumn migrating Bluethroats was consistent in the three wetlands (on the Bay of Biscay, Gironde, Txingudi, Urdaibai) analysed by Arizaga et al (2015) that are geographically close to Barthes de la Nive. If Bluethroats do show transient vs. non-transient divergent behaviours during migration as have been described for other migratory species (Rappole and Warner 1976), playbacks might have also biased stopover duration estimates if they do preferentially attract transient individuals.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 62%

“…If Bluethroats do show transient vs. non-transient divergent behaviours during migration as have been described for other migratory species (Rappole and Warner 1976), playbacks might have also biased stopover duration estimates if they do preferentially attract transient individuals. Again, the results obtained by Arizaga et al (2015) do not support this possibility, since playbacks do not seem to affect the number of Bluethroat recaptures, and this would be an expected outcome if playbacks promoted the capture of more transient individuals that will have less recapture prospects. Likewise and contrary to what would be expected for their transient condition, these short-staying individuals did not move as much as would be expected after being trapped in Barthes de la Nive, and their first-day home range did not differ significantly from that observed for long-staying conspecifics.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…To maximize the number of captures, we used one male song playback from 30 minutes before dawn (when mist-nets were open) until a tagged bird was released (when mist-nets were furled). By using the tape lures only 30 minutes before sunrise, we reduced the possibilities of forcing the landing of migrating Bluethroats and we expected to capture only birds that decided voluntarily to stop over in our study area (Schaub 1999;Arizaga et al 2015). During our ringing sessions, we captured 58 Bluethroats (28 in 2014 and 30 in 2015).…”

Section: Bluethroat Trapping and Body Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Stopover ecology of autumn-migrating Bluethroats (Luscinia svecica) in a highly anthropogenic river basin

et al. 2019

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Wetlands are highly productive habitats that are largely used by many avian species as stopover sites during their migrations. However, these habitats are highly threatened by anthropogenic activities, such as land use changes, the introduction of exotic species and global warming. Further understanding on the spatiotemporal use of wetlands and their surrounding areas by migrating birds is essential to predict how these changes might affect avian en route ecology. We selected a habitat-generalist passerine of conservation concern, the Bluethroat Luscinia svecica, as model of how migratory birds exploit a highly anthropogenic river basin in southwestern France (i.e. Barthes de la Nive) during autumn migration. We captured and radiotracked 29 young Bluethroats in this region to shed light on different aspects of their stopover ecology and behaviour, such as stopover duration, habitat selection and home range size. We also complemented the study with a characterization of Bluethroat diet and arthropod availability in different habitats. Bluethroats positively selected reedbeds (pure or mixed associated with carex), hydrophilous tall grasslands and corn crops. Birds staying more than just one day, 8.4 days on average, used preferably corn crops. Home range sizes were on average 5.8 ha (fixed kernels K95) and high occupancy area (K50) was 1.36 ha with large individual variation. Bluethroats stopping over with low body reserves tended to have larger home ranges and used preferentially corn crops, wet or mesotrophic grasslands and rural paths. Reedbeds were typically used as roosting habitat for the majority of birds, being on average 397 m apart from their daytime core areas. Short-staying birds tended to show higher body reserves and restricted their activities to a smaller home range (1 ha) in pure and mixed reedbed. The diet of Bluethroats was dominated by ants Hymenoptera Formicidae, Araneidae and Coleoptera that were most abundant in the corn crops. The use of corn crops by migrating Bluethroats during autumn in our study site appears to be a reasonable solution in a highly altered environment. Reducing the use of insecticides in these crops and delaying the harvesting time after mid-October are two measures that could favour Bluethroats and other migratory species while natural wetlands are restored and reedbeds protected from tree encroachment. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -This work was supported by the Conseil Départemental des Pyrénées Atlantiques, Syndicat Nive Maritime, Villefranque and Bayonne councils. We are particularly grateful to F. Esnault, S. Valles, R. Damestoy and R. Dufourcq. We are extremely thankful to L. Delalande, F. Delfour, A. Glad, M. Janczyszyn-Le Goff, T. Sarraude, for their commitment in the collection of the radiotracking data, to L. Julien for invertebrate sampling, and members of OISO association who made this research possible, especially F. Lartigau. National Museum of Natural History authorized the bird-ringing and radio-tracking scheme. The experiments were complied with the current laws of ...

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